The 12 Best, Quirkiest CES Gadgets We’ve Seen So Far

We've scoured booths. We've muscled our way into meeting rooms. We've even peeked under a table or two, scouting for engineering samples and other hardware unmentionables.

We've been looking for not only the best CES gear -- you know, the obvious stuff like phones and tablets -- but also the coolest, quirkiest, most curious gadgets the Las Vegas mega-show has to offer.

Are all the gadgets in this gallery triple-A products? Only time and Gadget Lab testing will tell. But we did play with each of them for at least a few minutes, and they all pegged our nerd meters damn hard. Product reviews of shipping hardware will bring each story full circle. Stay tuned for closer scrutiny in the coming weeks and months.

Nokia Lumia 900

Don't call it a comeback.

Nokia hasn't gone anywhere, per se. The company has enjoyed huge market share since the days when cellphones were as big as bricks. But they're mostly low-budget feature phones. Until, that is, Nokia joined Microsoft to make a kick-ass line of new Windows Phone-powered smartphones.

The Lumia 900 is Nokia's flagship for the U.S. market. It boasts full 4G connectivity and will be exclusive to AT&T's soon-to-expand LTE network. It's powerful, it's punchy, and frankly, it's damn good looking. It's wrapped in polycarbonate and soon to be available in several funky colors. The Finnish mobile giant is making itself known here in a big way with the new 900.

No price or exact release date yet, but expect to hear more in February. -- Mike Isaac

Thumb drive: Victorinox 1TB Swiss Army Knife - $3,000

While “the cloud” has made sharing and moving files a relatively simple process, large files can still choke a network. In fact, once a file hits 1GB, it’s usually quicker to grab a thumb drive. But if a file hits 1TB, it’s time to grab a knife.

The Victorinox 1TB Swiss Army Knife will not only hold every digitized season of Dallas, it also sports a knife, scissors and file. The USB 2.0 thumb drive detaches from the knife so users won’t have a blade hanging off their computer, potentially stabbing people as they walk by. If you’re in the market for 1TB of walk-around data, the knife with be available later this year.

Huawei Ascend P1 S

The world's thinnest smartphone isn't from Apple, or Samsung, or even Motorola. It's from a Chinese manufacturer you’ve probably never heard of.

Huawei is a relative newcomer to the U.S. smartphone scene, and its wafer-thin Ascend P1 S handset caught our eye — but just barely. It would be easy to miss. This baby is a mere 6.68 mm thick, or just a hair or two over a quarter inch for the metrically challenged.

The Huawei Ascend P1 S will be available in April. — Christina Bonnington

HP Envy 14 Spectre

As expected, a raft of ultrabooks debuted at CES. HP's new ultrabook is the most visually stunning of the bunch. The HP Envy 14 Spectre has a lid coated almost entirely in glass — when closed, the top of the computer shines like the surface of a reflecting pool.

Looking at the guts, the new Envy sits in the middle of the ultrabook pack: Intel Core processor, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of SSD storage with two additional mSATA drive slots. It's rather heavy at around 4 pounds, but HP's claimed battery life of 9 hours is impressive.

But it's the glass-covered design that makes the Envy truly stand out. It looks like a sleeping tablet when it's sitting closed on a table in front of you. Were it not for the bright, glowing HP logo in the corner, you'd expect to see the lid spring to life as a touchscreen.

The notebook runs Windows 7 and will be available in the U.S. on Feb. 8. Base price is $1,400. It rolls out in other countries in March. — Michael Calore

Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale

Fitbit already has a home run gadget in its eponymous activity tracker — you toss the little plastic clip in your pocket, and it records every step you take, every mile you walk, every stair you climb. It can even monitor your sleep cycles.

But what about your weight, body mass index, and even body fat percentage? How do these key health and fitness stats change over time? The new Aria Wi-Fi scale picks up where the Fitbit activity tracker leaves off. It provides detailed reports of your most personal body measurements. Step on the scale and it sends your stats to a secure online home via Wi-Fi. Open your Fitbit profile in a browser window or iPhone app to view rich visual snapshots of your burgeoning (or diminishing) avoirdupois. Motivating, yes?

And how's this for a group weight loss challenge: Up to eight family members can share one. The Aria Wi-Fi scale will sell for about $130 and ship sometime this spring. — Jon Phillips

HTC Titan II

The world’s first 4G LTE Windows Phone is the supercharged sequel to the original HTC Titan announced last fall. It’s called the Titan II, of course, and gets its name from the mini-tablet-like 4.7-inch super LCD capacitive touch display.

It packs a whopping 16-megapixel digital camera loaded with features so you can kiss your point-and-shoot goodbye once and for all. The phone also shoots 720p HD video and, unlike most Windows phones, boasts a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting.

The processor is a Qualcomm 1.5GHz Snapdragon S2, and a 1,730 mAh battery provides plenty of juice. Look for the Titan II “in the coming months” from AT&T. — Christina Bonnington

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga

Here’s a thin, full-featured notebook with a twist: A funky two-point hinge that lets you fold the screen around, turning it into a tablet.

The stylish Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga runs Windows 8, so the 13.1-inch touchscreen takes advantage of the operating system’s 10-point multitouch capabilities. Flip it around into a tablet and the desktop switches to the Metro UI. Peek under the hood and you’ll find an Intel processor. The Yoga can be configured to hold up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of SSD-based storage. The whole package is 0.67 inches thick and 3.1 pounds, on par with most ultrabooks. It’s handsome, too, with a leather palm rest, leather trim and the typical Lenovo Chiclet-style keyboard.

Look for the Yoga later this year with a starting price of $1,200. — Michael Calore

Mimoco MimoMicro Flash Drive

Storage is boring. And if you're to believe all the talk of "cloud computing" we hear these days, local storage is on its way out. What better way to make storage sexy again than by masking it in the paradigm of geek pop culture?

USB storage maker Mimoco embraced that formula with its Mimomicro flash drives, a line of keychain-sized MicroSD card readers dressed up as your favorite Star Wars characters. Aside from the novelty of having a wookie in your pocket, the new Mimomicros are made of sculpted plastic and coupled with an LED, so you know when you're plugged into your USB port.

They're cheap, too. At only $13 bucks a pop, this piece of Star Wars memorabilia won't break the bank. Unfortunately they won't be here until March, so you'll have to make do with your tired old Batman USB drive for now. Until that day, may the Flash be with you. — Mike Isaac

OLPC XO 3.0 tablet

Of all the tablets we’ve seen here at CES, this prototype from OLPC has the best intentions: Deliver inexpensive computing to those in need.

The XO 3.0 comes from One Laptop Per Child, the same folks who developed a dirt-cheap laptop. It’s got a lot to like. The lime-green plastic case features a solar panel on the cover that can generate four watts, enough for two hours of run time, in about an hour. Working at night? Working indoors? Spin the crank. Six minutes gets you enough juice for an hour.

The prototype, with its 1024x768 Pixel Qi display, features Marvell’s PXA618 ARM-based system-on-a-chip as well as Marvell’s Avastar Wi-Fi tech. It runs either Android OS or OLPC’s Linux-based Sugar desktop OS. No word yet on price, but we're hearing $100 or less. — Mike Isaac

ZIK Parrot by Starck

These wireless Bluetooth headphones aren't just great sounding, well built and ultra stylish. They've also got very cool technology hidden inside — the entire surface of the right earcup is touch-sensitive, letting you adjust the volume with a vertical swipe
of the finger, or flip through tracks in your smartphone's playlist with a horizontal swipe in either direction. Equally cool, internal sensors detect when you slide them off your ears and place them around your neck, then pause your music automatically. Put 'em back on and the music starts up again.

The ZIK headphones come to us courtesy of Parrot, the French wireless hardware company best known for the AR.Drone, the flying quadrocopter you control over Wi-Fi using your smartphone. The company unveiled these Philippe Starck-designed headphones here at CES and hopes to bring them to market in the U.S. and Europe later this year.

No word on price just yet, but considering the luxurious materials and the hefty tech involved — in addition to the touch-sensitive earpiece and the placement sensors, they utilize an on-board DSP chip and four noise-canceling microphones — we suspect the cost will rival a good Domaine de la RomanÄe-Conti. — Michael Calore

Tagg Pet Tracker

This is designed to help locate stray or stolen pets, but we don't see why it couldn't be attached to children as well. You affix the lightweight fob to any cat or dog (or child) over 10 pounds, and then establish a "Tagg zone" — essentially a geo-fence — where your pet (or child) spends most of its time. It could be your own home, or even backyard.

If your pet (or child) somehow leaves the Tagg zone, you'll get a text or e-mail notifying you that you Fido (or Timmy) is on the loose. You can also monitor your runaway's whereabouts on an iPhone or Android app. Isn't GPS wonderful?

Just one gotcha: the price. For $100, you get the hardware and one month of service. Each additional month is $7.95. That may be a fair price for tracking Fido, but if Timmy is going to run away just because you took away his Xbox, do you even want him back? — Jon Phillips

Yurbuds Inspire Pro Earphones

When you hit the gym or run the trail for a grueling workout, the last thing you want is your earbuds getting sloppy with sweat and slippy from your ear canals. Yurbuds, which has been making athletic in-ear buds since 2008, not only guarantees its buds won't fall out but swears the patented TwistLock tech ensures a contoured fit. That means pain-free listening even after extended usage, no matter how gangly and misshapen your ears might be.

This year, Yurbuds is featuring a new line of buds optimized for iOS devices with three-button functionality for on-the-fly music control and playback. A higher-end model, the Blaze, allows users to curve the elongated cords, which are strengthened for the wear-and-tear of endurance athletes, back around their neck. All models are water resistant, sweatproof, and filter out ambient noise. That way, when you're blowing past the pack in your next triathlon training run, you won't hear the moans and groans of flailing competitors. — Erik Malinowski